Overdue
by fringeperson
Summary: ONESHOT. COMPLETE. DO NOT OWN. It's been too long since Matt pulled the cleaning supplies out of their cupboard. Tai can see this, and decides to help. - this is sometime around/after the second season. yaoi.


"Whoa, Matt, seriously! What. The. Hell?" Taichi said, stopping and staring around at his best friend's apartment, barely in the door. Honestly, he would have noticed before he even walked in, but he'd been too involved in the conversation to notice before Yamato broke off for a moment to close the door behind them.

Matt turned around and cast a slightly embarrassed glance at his apartment. Rubbing at the back of his neck and shrugging, a sheepish smile on his face, the blond could find no explanation to offer.

"Man, when was the last time you saw the floor in this place?" the brunette enquired, half joking. There were patches of floor still visible after all, but there was junk everywhere, and some of it piled kinda high.

"I guess the cleaning kinda got away from me," Yamato said at last, looking around his habitat with some despair.

"Kinda," Tai agreed. "You know what, I'd be a lousy friend if I saw this and didn't help you out. Where are your garbage bags?"

The offer really surprised Yamato. He'd invited friends to his place before, having forgotten what it looked like, and upon opening the door they had all immediately offered that they go somewhere else instead. Taichi was the first one to suggest actually cleaning it up, let alone helping him.

"No, Tai, you don't have to do that -" Matt tried to protest, even as the goggled young man waded through the mess to his kitchen cupboards, where he started looking around for large plastic garbage bags.

"Yeah, Matt, I kinda think I do. If this gets left much longer it's going to start growing. Hell, it probably already has – and what's with all these take-out boxes? Come on man, I know you know how to cook," Taichi said, picking up a few pizza boxes and noodle boxes and stacking them up in a corner to be dealt with later.

Yamato didn't say anything, just grabbed a dusty laundry basket up off the floor – where it had been upside down and over some wrinkled up and slightly smelly clothes – and started piling dirty plates into it. No explanation, no joke or smile to reassure Tai that everything was fine, just silence and a look on his face like the one he'd been wearing when he was depressed in the DigiWorld.

Taichi watched as his best friend picked up the plates, bowls, mugs and glasses from around the apartment, some of them with stuff growing on them. Something was definitely wrong, he could tell, but he wasn't sure if it was something that he could get the blond to open up to him about. Still, he'd have a go, but after they'd cleaned up a bit. He searched the cupboards until he found a pair of rubber gloves, switched them out for his regular gloves, and started collecting up Matt's clothes, just moving them all to the laundry for now. He'd sort once he had everything there.

Apart from a layer of dust and some cobwebs, the laundry was pretty empty and unused looking, and Tai shook his head sadly. Why was Yamato doing this to himself?

It took an hour to pick up everything – the rubbish, the dishes, and the clothes. Then Tai had hauled out the vacuum cleaner and given the furniture a once over as well as the floor. Matt took out the rugs and blankets to air over the balcony, and both of them cleaned the floorboards. When everything was clean again, Taichi made coffee for them both and joined Yamato on his couch in front of the television.

"Come on Matt, tell me what's been bugging you," Tai said, handing over a cup of steaming black liquid. "And don't try telling me that it's nothing, or your apartment wouldn't have looked like it did," he added, his tone insistent.

Yamato sighed, took a sip of his coffee, closed his eyes and said: "Sora."

Taichi blinked. "What about her?"

"You asked me what's been bugging me, well, Sora has. She wants me to go out with her, but..." he trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say after that.

"Are you telling me that you'd rather go out with Jun?" Tai asked, disbelieving.

"NO!" Yamato yelled. "She's even more annoying than Sora about wanting me to go out with her, but I really value Sora's friendship, so I don't want to hurt her feelings about the whole thing... I guess..."

"Okay then," Tai said, sitting back and thinking about what Matt had just said, sipping his coffee sometimes. "So... if neither of them, who _do_ you want to go out with?" he asked. "To turn them both down, you must have somebody else in mind."

"Yeah," Yamato said quietly, rubbing the rim of his coffee cup with one finger. "Yeah I do, but I'm also really good friends with them, and I don't want to ruin the friendship with how I feel about ... _them_ either," he admitted, taking another mouthful of his coffee. "Actually, this has the potential to ruin a lot of friendships, not just the one I share with -" he cut himself off.

When Yamato ran a hand through his blond hair, then curled in on himself slightly and his shoulders started heaving – face buried now in his palms – Taichi sat in shock a moment, trying to think if he could remember Matt every crying before. He was having a real hard time coming up with anything.

Easing an arm around the blond musician's slimmer frame, the soccer enthusiast held onto his best friend until he felt his breathing even out.

"Matt, I hate to say this if I'm wrong, but you're acting like one of the guys on the team did when he was trying to tell the rest of the guys he was gay last week. He was terrified everybody would hate him, that he'd be kicked out of the team, but he still told everybody," Tai added in a weak chuckle. "Turns out half the team is gay, not just him, but no one said anything because of the same concern."

"How'd the other half of the team react to that?" Matt asked, chuckling slightly at the story and wiping his face.

"A little freaked, but it wasn't like anybody had made a move on anybody else, so in the end everybody just figured 'who cares?' and left it at that," Taichi answered. "So, do you need to come out of the closet before you can tell who you've got it bad for?"

Yamato bit his lip, looked away from Taichi, wrapped his arms around himself and nodded silently.

Taichi nodded as well, patting his friend on the shoulder before taking a deep breath and saying a little prayer in his mind.

"I love you Matt," Tai said.

Blond hair whipped out and blue eyes were wide as they fixed onto Tai's face.

"If you like someone else, I'll back off, but I thought I'd better tell you," the brunette added. "I was just too shy to tell you, when I was sure you were straight."

Matt's face settled into a smile, and a blush developed across his cheeks. "Ditto," he said, then buried his face quickly into Tai's chest, gripping his shirt with one hand and wrapping his other arm – the one still holding the coffee cup – around Tai's waist.

Tai sighed happily and wrapped his arms around Matt as well.


End file.
